The Rebellion in Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

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The Rebellion in Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar The speeches take place at Julius Caesar's funeral, Brutus is one of the leaders of group of conspirators, who assassinated Julius Caesar in the senate. This would be like John Prescot stabbing Tony Blair during Prime Ministers question time. Antony who was one of Caesar's heir apparent and so was deeply upset by the murder. The conspirators allowed Antony to speak at the funeral as long as he did not criticise what they had done. Brutus allowed him to go second, which was a mistake as it allowed Antony to contradict what he had said with no chance of a return argument. In Brutus's speech he gives a reasoned argument to why he stabbed Caesar. He claimed that though he loved him, he loved Rome more. By doing this he stirred up the plebeians patriotism. This is his only method of persuasion whereas Antony uses several techniques. In Antony's speech there is no single method that he uses to persuade the crowd, instead he uses many methods combined and interwoven. There are three main methods however; he uses sarcasm to sow doubt in people's minds about Brutus, he also undermines Brutus using logical explanations, and finally he plays on people's emotions. At first the crowd is very hostile towards Antony and even threatens him "'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here". Eventually he manages to make him self heard by calling "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears". Now that he has the crowd's attention he needs to put their minds to rest that he is not going to try and contradict what Brutus has just said, " I come to bury Caesar not praise him" Antony no uses the first part of his sarcasm, he says that Brutus and his followers have made Caesar pay "grievously" for his ambition, he then says that, "Brutus is an honourable man". This instantly begins to cast doubt in people's minds as to how Brutus can be right, for "an honourable man" would not stab someone.

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